Evidence-Based Strategies and Research-Based Practices

This is an excerpt from my book Johnson, A. (2024). Being and becoming teachers of writing: A meaning-based approach.  Routledge.

There are four things to consider when examining research-based strategies and evidence-based practices: 

1. One size does not fit all.  There’s a tendency by some outside the field of education to find one strategy that’s supported by a research study and then suggest that this one strategy must work for all students in all situations all the time. There is a technical name for this tendency: clownery.  When somebody claims to use research to support the effectiveness of a strategy or practice, you must always ask, what research?  Effective for who?  For what purpose?  How?  And at what level? 

2. No single study in education proves anything.  To think otherwise would be a naïve understanding of educational research.  Rather, each new piece of research becomes a theory.  A theory is a construct that helps us explain facts and understand phenomena.  Research-based theories, based on a wide body of research, should be used to begin to understand any phenomenon or practice including writing instruction.

3. There are no magical strategies, approaches, methods, or programs that work best for all students, all the time, and for all situations.  There are only magical teachers with toolboxes filled with research-based strategies.   Don’t be suckered into buying the next shiny new thing, just because you see “research-based” stamped on the side of the package.  The best approach for teaching writing is a teacher with deep knowledge of the writing process and a teacher toolbox filled with research-based strategies for teaching writing.  This means investing in legitimate professional development for teachers in the areas of writing and writing instruction so they can build their knowledge.  Then they must be empowered to use their knowledge and experience to make the decisions that are best for their students.

4. All evidence-based practices or research-based strategies should be contextualized. In other words, teachers must always rely on their experience, their knowledge of teaching writing, the knowledge of their students, and formative assessment.  They must then adopt and adapt each research-based strategy to meet the needs of their students.

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